


Best Friends Forever

by sharpiesgal (TigerLily)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Homelessness, Human Experimentation, M/M, Mind Control, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, abandoned animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 13:04:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1984047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/sharpiesgal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes have been best friends since childhood. They would do anything for each other. Seventy years after the war that tore them apart, they are briefly reunited, but as enemies.</p><p>It's during the aftermath of SHIELD's destruction that they search for each other and end up finding one another with help from an unlikely source.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Friends Forever

**Author's Note:**

> written for 2014 Slashorific
> 
> Thanks go to lasairfhiona for the cheerleading and beta.

With the doctor’s release ringing in his ears, Steve grabbed the clothes Sam had brought and slipped into the bathroom to get dressed. He wasn’t shy about getting dressed around other people. He just needed time to process the events of the past forty-eight hours.

 

He softly sighed and looked into the small mirror hanging over the sink.

 

Looking back at him were blue eyes filled with unshed tears as he fought the desire to break down and weep for all that he and the world had lost.

 

SHIELD was in shambles and Hydra was scurrying back into the shadows from which they had come from in the first place. This would make finding them harder than the proverbial needle in the haystack, but he wasn’t worried about them.

 

He was worried about Bucky.

 

His childhood friend had returned from the dead having survived a fall that would have killed a normal man. But, then Bucky hadn’t been normal. Whatever Zola had done to him while Bucky had been a prisoner of the Red Skull had made him almost super human.

 

And, what the Russians had done to him before Hydra reacquired him had turned Bucky into the killing machine known as the Winter Soldier.

 

It was heartbreaking and confusing. Steve didn’t know who to turn to for help and that had driven him into this bathroom to privately mourn any hope of ever fitting into this new century.

 

He roughly wiped the tears from his eyes and splashed some cold water onto his face. He quickly got dressed. He didn’t have time to mourn. He had a mystery to solve and an old friend to save.

*&*

Bucky roughly brushed his long hair from his face wishing for the thousandth time he had something he could cut it with. He never liked his hair to be so long, but his masters hadn’t allowed him the time to get it trimmed this time.

 

He softly sighed and pulled it back into a pony tail securing it with a bit of string he had found during his journey away from the river.

 

With the hair out of his face he was able to look into the small mirror that hung crookedly over the cracked sink in the equally small service station bathroom. Blue eyes filled with anger and confusion stared back at him. He was tempted to punch the mirror to vent some of his anger, but he didn’t since that would draw attention that he didn’t need or want.

 

He was finally free of his masters and their machines that turned him into the perfect killing machine. He was determined to stay that way or die trying to do so.

 

Memories of the person he had been before the Russians had found him were now jagged pieces of a puzzle he had no hope of ever solving. Years of being frozen and recondition had damaged the pieces and was making it difficult to fit them together correctly which added to his frustration as well as gave him a pounding headache.

 

He splashed some cold water on his face to give himself something to focus on besides the pain radiating through his skull. He picked up the battered ball cap that he had bartered a homeless man for and put it on making certain that it hid his face and silently left the bathroom.

 

He had one more mission to complete. Find his old friend and figure out his place in this new century.

*&*

Green eyes bore into his blue ones as Natasha handed him an old, battered file folder with Cyrillic writing on it.

 

“What’s this?”

 

“Bucky’s file,” she simply answered. “I called in a few favors in Kiev to get it.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Be careful, Steve,” she quietly advised. “You may not want to pull on this thread.”

 

“He’s my friend. He’s all I have left. I need to know what happened to him so I can find him and finally bring him home,” Steve explained hoping Natasha would understand exactly how important Bucky was to him.

 

“I understand,” she replied having done the same for Clint when he had attacked the helicarrier while under Loki’s thrall. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

 

“I’ll be careful,” Steve promised knowing they both knew it was a lie.

 

“Keep an eye on him, will you, Sam.”

 

“I’ll keep him on my left,” Sam quipped causing Steve to laugh and Natasha to give him a quizzical look.

 

“Inside joke,” Steve explained to Natasha with a wry grin.

 

Natasha nodded.

 

“So where are you going?”

 

“Some place where I can create new aliases since everyone knows my current ones.”

 

“Sounds like fun,” Steve quipped. “But if you need any help or just want to keep from going stir crazy, just call Tony. He’ll know how to get hold of me.”

 

“Is it wise involving him in your search?”

 

“Wise no, but helpful yes.”

*&*

Chocolate brown eyes stared into his intense blue ones pleading for him to be nice and not chase him away like everyone else had.

 

Bucky sighed, but he didn’t push the small dog away. It reminded him of Steve when his old friend had been skinny and sickly.

 

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the stick of beef jerky he had stolen days before. He opened the package with his teeth and kneeled down to feed tiny bits of the jerky to the dog.

 

The dog sat and patiently waited for each bite happy to have someone feed him and show him a little kindness. He didn’t know how or why he had been left in this dark place that was so far from the home he had been happily living in.

 

Bucky stood up when the dog finished the last bit of jerky and told him, “I’m sorry, buddy. It’s all gone and I don’t have anything else to give you.”

 

The dog stood up and licked Bucky’s right hand as if to say he understood, and he waited for Bucky to walk away a few feet before following after him.

 

Bucky let him since he could use the company.

*&*

“He’s a fucking ghost!” Tony declared with a frustrated sigh. He pushed away from his desk and stood up to pace around his office as he tried to think of ways to track a virtual ghost. He didn’t have much experience dealing with people who stayed off the grid on purpose. “It’s been three months and not a fucking blip on the radar!”

 

“I didn’t expect to find him overnight,” Steve said in an attempt to reassure the genius. “He has several good reasons to stay off the grid, as you put it.”

 

“Yeah, I get that,” Tony remarked as he stopped in front of the large windows behind his desk and studied Steve’s reflection. He saw the frustration he felt reflected in Steve’s deep blue eyes, but it was mingled with fear and a touch of anger. “Nobody likes being turned inside out and used to kill a close friend.”

 

Steve nodded and looked away. He didn’t know how to handle the pain that leaked from Tony’s dark brown eyes like the man knew exactly what he was feeling and wanted Steve to know he wasn’t alone in feeling like that.

 

“Let’s go talk to Bruce,” Tony suggested after a few seconds of silence. “If anyone knows anything about staying off the grid, it would be him.”

 

Steve didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to involve another person in his search, but Tony was right about Bruce, so he just followed Tony from his office and down to the lab the billionaire had set aside for his fellow scientist and Avenger.

*&*

Bucky was awake and in defensive crouch as soon as his dog started barking at the dark, curly haired stranger who was kneeling in front of his crudely thrown together shelter holding a piece of paper in his hand.

 

“Sorry if I disturbed you,” the man said pitching his voice to be heard over the barking. “I didn’t mean to. I was leaving you a note explaining who I am and the services I offer since you appear to be new to the area.”

 

Bucky nodded and reached out to place his right hand on the dog’s back. The stranger didn’t need to see his metal hand, because that would lead to questions he didn’t have answers for and put him on the radar for his former masters to find him. “Hush, Stevie,” he quietly ordered and the dog immediately stopped barking. “You gonna get us tossed out of another alley if you keep it up.”

 

“You don’t have to worry about that,” the stranger said reassuringly. “Not many of the homeless like hanging around the Tower since the Battle for Manhattan. They think the building is some kind of alien magnet.”

 

“What?” Bucky asked really confused and wondering if he were hallucinating again. It happened when he spent too long out of the cryochamber and away from his masters’ guidance.

 

“Oh, sorry,” the stranger apologized. “My name is Bruce. I work in the Tower and in my spare time I volunteer as a doctor at the homeless shelter down the street.”

 

“I’m Jim and this is Stevie,” Bucky introduced himself and his dog. He would have lied, but with the holes in his memory he couldn’t trust himself to remember a simple lie so he used the shorten version of his first name. “And what’s this about an alien magnet?”

 

Bruce softly chuckled and went on to explain the events from two years previously.

*&*

Tony paused outside Bruce’s darken lab with a muttered, “Shit! I forgot today is shelter day.”

 

“Shelter day?” Steve inquired.

 

“Yeah,” Tony sighed. “Bruce volunteers at the homeless shelter down the street a couple of days a week since they can’t afford to have a licensed doctor on their staff. It makes him feel useful and it keeps Clint from wanting to kill him when one of his lab projects ties him in knots.”

 

“I see,” Steve murmured. He wasn’t surprised to find out that Bruce was out helping people wherever and whenever he could.

 

“I can call him to see how long he’ll be,” Tony suggested.

 

“Nah,” Steve replied. “There is no point in rushing him if he’s trying to make the world a better place.”

 

“Yeah, he’s a regular Mother Teresa,” Tony quipped sarcastically. “So where you gonna to be so I can tell him where to find you when he gets back?”

 

“Down in the gym testing out your new and improved punching bags,” Steve answered with his lips twisted into an impish grin.

 

“Knock yourself out, Cap,” Tony retorted with a grin of his own. “I promised Pepper I would go wow some investors today, but I might torture them instead.”

 

“Why does she put up with you, again?”

 

“I’m great in bed!” Tony threw over his shoulder as he walked away.

 

Steve shook his head and wandered off toward the gym Tony had built for the team so that they could have some place to workout with no interruptions especially when Thor was visiting.

*&*

Bruce didn’t know what possessed him to bring Jim and Stevie back to the Tower with him except maybe it was the small dog’s pitiful brown eyes that reminded him of Tony’s when the genius was apologizing for screwing up again.

 

He snuck them in through a side entrance that lead directly to an elevator that went straight to the floors Tony had set aside for the Avengers. He was getting them settled when Jarvis informed him, “Sir, has been looking for you, Doctor Banner.”

 

“Did he say why?” Bruce asked all the while watching Jim try to locate where Jarvis’ voice was coming from. Everybody did that to some extent even if they knew about Jarvis when they entered the Tower.

 

“Something to do with a special project he is working on,” Jarvis replied.

 

“I see,” Bruce murmured, and then he went on to introduce Jarvis to Jim. “Jarvis, I would like you to meet Jim and his dog, Stevie. They’ll be staying with us for awhile.”

 

“I am pleased to meet you Jim,” Jarvis said. “If there is anything you need during your stay, please let me know and I will get it for you.”

 

“Nice to meet you as well,” Jim slowly said still uncertain of his new surroundings, but trusting Bruce not to harm him or Stevie.

 

“Jarvis is the artificial intelligence Tony designed and built many years ago. He controls everything in the Tower,” Bruce explained. “Just think of him as a major domo.”

 

“Okay,” Jim agreed not certain he remembered what the term major domo meant.

 

“I know this has been a lot to take in, so why don’t you and Stevie go get some rest while I go find out what Tony wants,” Bruce suggested with a warm smile trying to ignore the fact that the Other Guy was rumbling in the back of his head about the amount of stress that was pouring off Jim in waves despite his relaxed posture.

 

“Sounds like a good idea,” Jim said as he watched Stevie get comfortable on the makeshift bed Bruce had created from a couple of couch cushions. “We’ll be here when you get back.”

 

“Alright,” Bruce sighed and watched Jim sit down on the couch that faced the apartment’s front door. He knew from personal experience how important a moment’s head start was when one was being ruthlessly hunted down, and Bruce had a feeling that Jim did too, so he didn’t try to convince him to use the guest room. “Remember, you can ask Jarvis for anything you need and I shouldn’t be gone for too long.”

 

“Okay,” Jim said and yawned. The couch was soft, it didn’t smell of rotten garbage and there was no one trying to take it away from him. This allowed him to relax a little bit further despite the strangeness of his surroundings.

 

Bruce nodded and left.

*&*

Bucky smiled when Stevie joined him on the couch after Bruce left. “You like it here, buddy?” he asked as he scratched behind the dog’s ears.

 

Stevie let out a woof and settled into a ball against Bucky’s chest.

 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Bucky quipped with a soft laugh before letting his need to sleep overwhelm his need to be in control of every situation.

*&*

“Doctor Banner,” Jarvis said once Bruce stepped out into the hallway. “I believe you have found the person Captain Rogers and Sir have been looking for.”

 

“I think you’re right, Jarvis,” Bruce admitted. “Now, comes the fun part.”

 

“Indeed, Doctor,” Jarvis sagely agreed.

 

Bruce softly sighed. “Where are they right now?”

 

“Sir is with investors and Captain Rogers is in the Avengers’ gym.”

 

“Alright,” Bruce murmured as he entered the elevator and punched the button for the floor the gym was on. “Wish me luck.”

 

“Good luck, Doctor.”

*&*

Steve pushed the new punching bag away from him with a tired sigh since he couldn’t break it open like his old ones. He needed that little bit of destruction to ease the frustration that was building up in his chest.

 

He slumped on the bench and began to unwrap his hands when he heard the door to the gym open. He looked up and was surprised to see Bruce entering the room. He thought it would be Tony coming to tell him that Bruce was back.

 

“What can I do for you, Bruce?” he asked as he stuffed the unraveled tape into his gym bag.

 

“Jarvis said you and Tony were looking for me, so I think that’s my question,” Bruce countered. He walked over to the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water which he tossed to Steve.

 

“I need help finding an old friend,” Steve answered as he caught the bottle and took a drink from it.

 

“Would that old friend happen to be the Winter Soldier?”

 

“How did you know that?” Steve asked surprised. He thought that he and Tony had been so discrete in their efforts to find Bucky.

 

“Tony talks in his sleep when he gets frustrated,” Bruce explained.

 

“I thought you and Clint were together,” Steve countered hoping he hadn’t committed another faux pas.

 

“We are,” Bruce replied with a wry grin. “There are times I have to put Tony to bed in the lab because he doesn’t want to leave when we are in the middle of an important project, but he needs to rest before he blows us up.”

 

“I see,” Steve quietly replied. “So can you help me?”

 

“I can,” Bruce agreed as he worked up the courage to tell Steve about finding his friend and bringing him back to the Tower. “Why don’t you come up to my floor and tell me everything you know.”

 

“Okay,” Steve quickly agreed. He finished off the bottle of water and tossed it into the recycling bin before zipping up his gym bag. “After you.”

 

Bruce nodded and left the gym with Steve following quietly behind.

*&*

Bucky snapped immediately awake when felt Stevie jump off his chest and begin pacing in front of the door with a deep growl emanating from his small chest. He found himself in a defensive crouch behind the couch when he heard Bruce call out, “Jim, it’s Bruce. I’m coming in and I have a friend with me.”

 

Bucky let out a silent sigh as he stood up and walked around the couch to settle on it once again as he ordered Stevie to heel.

 

Stevie joined Bucky on the couch and was being petted when the door opened and the man he had come to New York in search of walked in behind Bruce.

*&*

Steve had followed Bruce to his floor and was surprised to see the other man pull out a set of keys from his pocket, but then he remember that Bruce preferred to handle his own security even though Jarvis handled security for the Tower.

 

He was even more surprised when he heard Bruce call out, “Jim, it’s Bruce. I’m coming in and I have a friend with me.”

 

“Bruce?” Steve asked curious but guarded at the same time. He was not fond of surprises. “What’s going on?”

 

“Just follow my lead, okay?” Bruce replied with a cautious smile.

 

Steve looked deep into Bruce’s brown eyes and saw that his friend wasn’t planning on pranking him like Tony did sometimes. He nodded and followed Bruce through the door.

 

What he saw on the couch made him gasp, “Bucky!” and stand stock still for fear that it might be an illusion.

*&*

Stevie chose that moment to break the strained silence. He hopped off the couch and walked up to Steve. He butted his head against the other man’s leg in a demand to be petted.

 

Steve snapped out of his daze and dropped his gym bag so he could gently scratch behind the dog’s ears receiving a pleased moan for his effort. “Like that do you?”

 

“He’s like you in that regard,” Bucky remarked with a slight grin as he tried to come to terms with seeing his friend for the first time in months.

 

“And, you’re full of shit,” Steve retorted automatically falling back into how he and Bucky spoke to each other most of their lives while still petting the dog.

 

Bucky gave a tiny shrug of his shoulders. It was nice to see his friend alive and doing better than when they had last seen each other. When he closed his eyes to sleep most nights, he could see himself pulling a battered and barely breathing Steve out of the cold water of the Potomac River as his masters’ machines of mass destruction fell down around them as burning hulks of twisted steel and ambition.

 

“What did you name him?”

 

“Stevie.”

 

“Hmm...” Steve murmured. “I can see why.” The dog was on the scrawny side and Steve could see how that might remind Bucky of him pre-serum. 

 

“I’m going to make some tea,” Bruce said breaking in at that point. “Would you two like some?”

 

“I wouldn’t mind a cup,” Bucky answered. It had been a few hours since he had anything to eat or drink.

 

“I’ll take a cup, Bruce,” Steve answered as he walked over and settled into the overstuffed chair that sat catty cornered from the couch, which allowed him to keep Bucky in sight and vice versa. Stevie followed him and settled on the floor content that he had everything under control. “He really is a good dog. Where did you find him?”

 

“Somewhere in Virginia, I think,” Bucky said trying to remember where he had been when Stevie had wandered into his life and failing. “He found me one day when I was ready to give up trying to fit into this new century. He’s kept me on an even keel ever since.”

 

Steve nodded and searched for something to say when there was a loud knock on the door causing Bucky to tense up all over again while Stevie stood up and put himself between Bucky and the door.

 

“It’s okay,” Bruce said in a calm voice as he returned with a fully loaded tray that he sat on the side table next to where Steve was sitting. “It’s just another friend.”

 

“Okay,” Bucky said and leaned forward to rest his right hand on Stevie’s shoulder to get him to stand down. The dog hopped up on the couch and curled close to Bucky staying in contact with him the entire time.

 

Steve smiled and at Bruce’s nod invited the new visitor in with, “You can come in, Tony.”

 

Bucky watched the door open and for him time seemed to stand still as a ghost from his past walked in.

*&*

“Son of a bitch!” Tony breathed when he laid eyes on Bucky. The man he had spent the better part of the past three months looking for was calmly sitting on Bruce’s couch petting a scrappy looking, brown dog with a daze expression on his face as if he had seen a ghost or something.

 

But he shook it off and spoke first, “So you’re Howard’s kid.”

 

“Yeah,” Tony muttered with a crooked grin as he closed the door behind him and stepped further into the room. “What gave me a way?”

 

“You look like him,” Bucky simply replied.

 

Both Steve and Bruce saw Tony tense up at that answer and silently waited for Tony to be a dick because of his dislike for Howard.

 

“I get that a lot,” Tony said in a non-committal tone. He had been around enough soldiers who experienced PTSD that he knew not to be confrontational, especially over something as petty as his dislike of being compared to his father.

 

“I wouldn’t fret about it,” Bucky quietly advised having figured out by the way Tony was holding himself that he didn’t care very much for his father. It was something they had in common and a topic for conversation once Steve let him out of his sight. “We can’t help it if we look like the people who dicked us over as children.”

 

Steve and Bruce let out silent sighs of relief when Tony softly chuckled and agreed with Bucky saying, “No truer words have ever been spoken,” as he walked over and settled in the chair opposite Steve. “And, it looks like I’m in time for tea.”

 

Bruce shook his head and began to pour tea into the four cups that he had placed on the tray knowing that Tony would show up once Jarvis alerted him to Bucky’s presence in the Tower.

 

Steve and Bucky exchanged looks and laughed when Stevie decided to make himself at home in Tony’s lap much to the genius’ surprise.

*&*

Steve walked through his living room pausing briefly to scratch Stevie behind the ears as the dog lounged on the couch and out onto the balcony knowing he would find Bucky there enjoying the few cigarettes that Tony had procured for him.

 

It was still strange for him to look at Bucky and see both his best friend and worst enemy, but he pushed that aside and joined Bucky at the railing happy to get lost in the view of Manhattan at night.

*&*

“I can hear you thinking,” Bucky said between puffs of his cigarette. “Your brain hasn’t gotten any quieter since you’ve gotten older, so what’s on your mind?”

 

“Trying to find a way to apologize for not coming back after you fell off that train,” Steve answered.

 

“No need,” Bucky said in a quiet tone that he hoped Steve found reassuring. “I was a goner the moment that car blew apart.”

 

“I should have tried.”

 

“Stop beating yourself up over it,” Bucky said turning to look Steve directly in the eye. “What happened happened and is in the past. When the Russians found me I was barely alive and should have died if it hadn’t been for the crap Zola had done to me.”

 

“You remember?”

 

“Not everything,” Bucky answered. He stubbed out his cigarette and flicked the butt over the rail. “A good bit has come back in the past few months, but there are going to be things that I’ll never fully remember.”

 

“I’m still sorry,” Steve murmured.

 

“C’mere, punk,” Buck said reaching out to draw Steve close so that their foreheads touched. “I love you. And from here on out, we’ll face whatever comes at us and not let it or the past destroy us. Deal?”

 

Steve looked deep into Bucky’s blue eyes and saw their future there, and with a smile he agreed, “Deal.”


End file.
